Analyst Notes The Pervasive Effect Trump Is Having On Obama

As President Barack Obama repeatedly makes presumed Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump the focus of his statements regardless of the topic, at least one media commentator has wondered who is getting to whom in the duel between Obama and a candidate who has repeatedly labeled his presidency a failure.

Most recently, in a speech in Ottowa Canada, Obama said, “Let’s just be clear that somebody who labels ‘us versus them’ or engages in rhetoric about how we’re going to look after ourselves and take it to the other guy –that’s not the definition of populism.”

“It is one of the grandest ironies that a giant real estate developer in New York is currently living rent free in President Obama’s head,” CNN host Jake Tapper said Wednesday.

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Tapper noted that Trump is never far from Obama’s mind. “Whatever the topic is, President Obama is eager go after the presumptive presidential nominee whether or not the topic is ISIS after the Orlando shootings, or if the topic is trade, or in this case, the question was about clean energy and President Obama wanted to give a lesson as to what populism truly is.”

“Look, the elephant in the room in this entire press conference with three North American leaders was Donald Trump on every issue, including trade of course, which they all made a case for strengthening the TPP and for strengthening NAFTA, which Donald Trump wants to get out of … Hillary Clinton is now not a fan of either of those,” Borger said.

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Borger also noted that during a discussion on immigration, leaders focused more on Trump’s positions — despite not mentioning him by name — than anything else.